The present invention generally relates to a three-dimensional virtual reality space display processing apparatus, a three-dimensional virtual reality space display processing method, and an information providing medium and, more particularly, to a three-dimensional virtual reality space display processing apparatus, a three-dimensional virtual reality space display processing method, and an information providing medium that allow a user who wants to use three-dimensional virtual reality spaces to directly and easily select a desired three-dimensional virtual reality space through an integrated GUI (Graphical User Interface).
A cyberspace service named Habitat (trademark) is known in the so-called personal computer communications services such as NIFTY-Serve (trademark) of Japan and CompuServe (trademark) of US in which a plurality of users connect their personal computers via modems and public telephone network to the host computers installed at the centers of the services to access them in predetermined protocols. Development of Habitat started in 1985 by Lucas Film of the US, operated by Quantum Link, one of US commercial networks, for about three years. Then, Habitat started its service in NIFTY-Serve as Fujitsu Habitat (trademark) in February 1990 . In Habitat, users can send their alter egos called avatars (the incarnation of a god figuring in the Hindu mythology) into a virtual city called Populopolis drawn by two-dimensional graphics to have a chat (namely, a realtime conversation based on text entered and displayed) with each other. For further details of Habitat, refer to the Japanese translation of xe2x80x9cCyberspace: First Steps,xe2x80x9d Michael Benedikt, ed., 1991, MIT Press Cambridge, Mass., ISBNO-262-02327-X, the translation being published Mar 20, 1994, by NTT Publishing, ISBN4-87188-265-9C0010, pp. 282-307.
In order to implement the above-mentioned cyberspace system by use of the infrastructure of the Internet through which information can be transferred all over the world, standardization of a three-dimensional graphics description language called VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) is proceeding.
In WWW (World Wide Web) of the Internet, document data can be described in HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and the resultant HTML file can be stored in a WWW server. This HTML file can be transferred on demand by a client terminal and can be displayed by use of the HTML browser of that client terminal.
Like this HTML file, three-dimensional graphics data can be described in VRML and the resultant VRML file can be stored in a WWW server. This VRML file can be transferred on demand by a client terminal and can be displayed by use of the VRML browser of that client terminal.
The applicant hereof has developed CyberPassage (trademark) as application software that includes this VRML browser capable of decoding this VRML file to draw and display the decoded result as a three-dimensional space.
This CyberPassage is composed of the following three software programs:
(1) CyberPassage Browser
This is a VRML browser which is based on VRML 1.0 and prefetches the capabilities (motion and sound) of VRML 2.0 to support E-VRML that provides moving picture capability. In addition, this provides the multi-user capability which can be connected to CyberPassage Bureau. For the script language, TCL/TK is used.
(2) CyberPassage Conductor
This is a VRML authoring system which is based on E-VRML based on VRML 1.0. This tool can not only simply construct a three-dimensional world but also give a behavior, a sound, and an image to the three-dimensional world with ease.
(3) CyberPassage Bureau
This is used for a server terminal system for enabling people to meet each other in a virtual reality space constructed on a network, connected from the CyberPassage Browser.
Using (mainly viewing) a three-dimensional virtual reality space by use of a VRML browser such as the above-mentioned CyberPassage Browser requires to specify a VRML file stored in a WWW server by URL (Uniform Resource Locator, an address for uniquely specifying Internet resources) or select a VRML file described with a desired three-dimensional virtual reality space from among a plurality of VRML files stored on the HDD (Hard Disc Drive) or CD-ROM disc of a client terminal and read the selected file.
For example, in the above-mentioned conventional CyberPassage Browser, the user operates the mouse to select xe2x80x9cOpen Filexe2x80x9d from the xe2x80x9cFilexe2x80x9d drop-down menu in the menu bar as shown in FIG. 38. The user must visually find a directory (also called a folder) storing the desired VRML file from the directory tree displayed in the dialog box of xe2x80x9cOpen Filexe2x80x9d displayed by the selection. Then, the user must move the pointer to the VRML file in that directory and click the mouse. Thus, searching for the VRML file described with a desired three-dimensional virtual reality space requires complicated and cumbersome operations.
FIG. 38 shows a display screen in which xe2x80x9cOpen Filexe2x80x9d dialog box is displayed again for explanation after displaying a UFO world (a three-dimensional virtual reality space) by selecting a VRML file having file name Main.wrl stored in directory R:/SONY/WORLD/TOYWORLD/UFO/.
As seen from FIG. 38, seeing a file name only does not allow intuitive understanding of what kind of a virtual world that three-dimensional virtual reality space is.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to allow a user of a three-dimensional virtual reality space to directly and easily select any desired three-dimensional virtual reality space through an integrated three-dimensional GUI (Graphical User Interface).
In carrying out the invention and according to one aspect thereof, there are provided a three-dimensional virtual reality space display processing apparatus a three-dimensional virtual reality space display processing method and, and an information providing medium that store three-dimensional graphics data in a storage means on a file basis in which each three-dimensional virtual reality space is described, automatically generate three-dimensional graphics data described with an entry room having a three-dimensional array of three-dimensional icons corresponding to the three-dimensional graphics data stored in the storage means on a file basis, and display a three-dimensional virtual reality space corresponding to this automatically generated entry room.
This novel constitution allows a user of a three-dimensional virtual reality space to directly and easily select any desired three-dimensional virtual reality space through an integrated three-dimensional GUI (Graphical User Interface).
It should be noted that the information providing medium herein denotes not only package media such as a floppy disk and a CD-ROM in which computer programs are stored but also a transmission medium by which a computer program is downloaded via a network such as the Internet for example.
In the following description, an object xe2x80x9cavatarxe2x80x9d representing user""s alter ego can move around inside a virtual reality space, enter in and walk off it. The avatar can change (or update) its states inside a virtual reality space. Therefore, such an object is hereafter referred to as an update object appropriately. On the other hand, an object representative of a building constituting a town in the virtual reality space is used commonly by a plurality of users and does not change in its basic state. Even if the building object changes, it changes autonomously, namely it changes independent of the operations made at client terminals. Such an object commonly used by a plurality of users is appropriately called a basic object hereafter.